Winifred Mary Ward
British speech therapist
Winifred Mary Ward (12 October 1884 – 26 January 1979) was a pioneering British speech therapist.
Early life
Winifred was born on 12 October 1884 in Victoria Street, Old Charlton, London to parents Harry Marshall Ward and Selina Mary Ward (née Kingdon).
Career
Her first career was as a singing teacher, but after World War I she was so affected by the plight of shell shock victims that she turned most of her attention to trying to help them. She began working at the West London Hospital in Maida Vale and at Pembury in Kent, helping traumatised men to speak.
She left the West End Hospital school in 1935 to spend time in South Africa. When she returned to London in the late 1930s she was unable to resume her old post and took steps to set up a different course in conjunction with a former student, Amy Swallow. Ward was instrumental in setting up the London hospitals school of speech therapy (later called the Kingdon-Ward school of speech therapy), which was founded in 1942 in Cavendish Square.
She was a founder fellow of the College of Speech Therapists now the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists. She wrote several books on the subject of speech therapy, as well as poems for children and poems specifically for use in teaching aspects of speech. Her 1941 work on stammering was the first major text on the subject in the British literature and was one of the earliest works on any topic in the field.
The public source identifies “Winifred Mary Ward” as british speech therapist. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Winifred, Mary and Ward.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Winifred Mary Ward”, the useful work is to connect “british speech therapist” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 12, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q8025408. VIAF identifies the subject as 66004900. The Library of Congress control number is nb2008022529. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1884, 1979, 1935 and 1942.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Winifred Mary Ward”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Winifred Mary Ward primary sources, Winifred Mary Ward archive and Winifred research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Winifred Mary Ward”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Winifred Mary Ward” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.